A very touching jewelry party and weekend...

This past Friday evening we had our first home jewelry party (well the first in a long 2 years). It was held at Lexington, TX at Tiffany Patschke's house. All day long, my new friend, Anna Spencer of The Grace Photography, and myself prepared for this party. I am also waiting to see the fabulous pictures Anna took of the party and will share them as soon as I have them. Anyways, back to the story. We took over Tiffany's house and decorated it with SJ goodies all over the place! By the time we had left to get ready and returned, many guests had arrived.

There were probably 25-30 ladies in attendance. One thing that I thought was so awesome, is most of these ladies were wives and mothers, but were childhood and high school friends and they still keep their relationships strong. That's definately how I was to be with all of my girlfriends in 5-10 years!

There was one younger girl in attendance. She is a sophomore at Texas A&M University majoring in Nutrition Science. I noticed she look at many, many items but only bought a pair of earrings. I don't know for sure her family life, but I do know my friend Anna put one item t

hat she had wanted aside and let me know she was buying it for the girl. I of course asked, why? what's wrong? I believe she lost a or both (not for sure) parents while she was in high school. One of the young mom's from Lexington was her high school counselor, so that's how she fit into the crowd. Anna soon told me that the girl had worked 2 jobs in high school to afford an apartment for herself. Because she was ranked at the top of her high school class, she couldn't move in with her aunt and uncle like her other siblings, or she wouldn't be able to qualify for valedictorian of her high school class, which would then cost her a lot of scholarship money. Now, this gorgeous and bright young lady is a sophomore by year, but junior by hours and plans to attend medical school. Needless to say, I had to fight back the tears hearing Anna tell me the story.

So of course, I told Anna many of the items the girl seemed to had wanted, that way I could give them to her, but they were already purchased. Little did I know, but some of the other w

omen were buying them for her. The only thing that I knew she wanted that hadn't been boughten for her yet was this necklace.

For all of you followers and readers who know me personally, it will come to no surprise that I wanted her to have this necklace. But the problem was, how were we going to give all of these items to her without her thinking she was needing charity in our eyes. So, we called her high school counselor over, told her we had compiled everything she wanted, multiple necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, and we wanted her to have them. The counselor called her over and explained that the ladies and myself wanted her to have all the items to wear an

d promote SJ while working at the Texas RoadHouse in College Station, TX. She of course did not want to accept the gifts at first, and with tears in my eyes, I told her I would love for a

girl like herself to promote my business. She did accept and by this point, tears had created in her eyes.

By the end of the night when I was taking Anna home, I explained to her how truly touched I was by the young girl. Then, as if I wasn't already fighting to hold the tears back, she told me that she wanted her little girl (whom I absolutely love) to grow up to be just like me. That was one of the sweetest and most genuine things anybody has ever said to me! By the time I had dropped her off, I called my mother (keep in mind it was 1am at this point) and just cried

to her. From telling her how much I love her (my mom), how blessed I am, how I try to be the best influence to others, and explaining how the night worked out, I could barely breathe in between the tears. Of course, my emotions were probably influenced by the time and me being tired, but I explained to my mom that I know I have pursued the correct line of business and am creating an amazing future for myself and others surrounded by me.

So, moral of the story - Realize just how blessed each of you truly are. Say your prayers w

hen you go to bed each night and when you wake up each morning. In today's society, it is so easy to take for granted all the gifts that life truly has.

I am now booking jewelry parties for the months of April and May. Please email me at randa@southernjewlz.com if you are interested! Of course, as a host, you will receive a very nice discount towards your SJ purchase. Until the next blog, stay fabulous SJ followers and customers!